Large Pool Of Molten Rock Was Just Found Rising Beneath New England

A picture taken from Catania, Sicily, shows the Etna volcano covered with snow on February 16, 2017. (MARIE-LAURE MESSANA/AFP/Getty Images)

Scientists have identified a massive body of molten rock rising beneath parts of New England. This region, which is geologically stable, could begin to exhibit volcanic activity. Fortunately, any potential volcanic eruptions wouldn't be for millions of years.

The study, led by geologists at Rutgers University found evidence that could upend conventional thinking on the geology of New England.

Lead author Vadim Levin stated that“The upwelling we detected is like a hot air balloon, and we infer that something is rising up through the deeper part of our planet under New England".

The process appears similar to the phenomenon seen under Yellowstone National Park, a hot spot where magma is continually pushed from the mantle through the crust and periodically onto the surface in massive eruptions. However, it's far too soon to determine whether this pool of magma will ever get to the magnitude of Yellowstone supervolcano.

In the coming millions of years, any number of things could happen, the upwelling of magma could die off, increase in speed, size, etc. At this point, it's anyone's guess what the future will hold for New England geology, a motivation behind further investigating this upwelling of magma.

How The Magma Pool Was Discovered

The Earthscope Program, funded by the National Science Foundation, provided the seismic data for this discovery. The program deployed thousands of instruments, evenly spaced 46.6 miles apart, that can measure seismic waves around the North American continent. These seismic instruments measure earthquakes and by analyzing the speed and direction of the waves, geophysicists are able to reconstruct images of the subsurface. This includes structure, general rock type, temperature, etc. This instrument array has helped with earthquake and volcanic eruption prediction and now has helped to identify this pool of magma.

The figure above depicts the location of upwelling magma in New England. The warmer colors indicate areas where the rock is less dense, warmer and rising toward the surface.

Vadim Levin/Rutgers University-New Brunswick

By studying the seismic waves caused by earthquakes, the research team found an unusual massive area of molten rock underneath New England. In addition, it appears the molten rock is rising due to buoyancy as hotter objects are often less dense than cooler objects. This strange pool of hotter, less dense, molten rock is upwelling beneath central Vermont, western New Hampshire, and western Massachusetts.

This could mean this region of New England could become volcanically active in millions of years if the molten pool of rock continues to rise to the surface.

What's fascinating is New England is geologically stable, and we could be witnessing the formation of a geologically active region. Similar to the onset of the Yellowstone supervolcano hotspot. Often times, since geology happens on such great timescales, we're left with a "static" snapshot of the geology of the Earth. While analyzing ancient rocks gives clues to how the Earth has changed, this is an exceptional example of detecting an ongoing change in Earth's geologic makeup.

The Atlantic coast of North America (New England included) has been geologically stable for almost 200 million years. This passive margin, however, won't escape the relentless change in Earth's crust forever. Now, it appears, we may be witnessing the birth of a volcanic east coast of the United States.